Spotify US Launch: Price comparison with UK – Unfair deal?

It is the news that a lot of you have been waiting to hear for a long time, and we can finally confirm that it is now happening. Consumers in the US will now be able to enjoy the benefits of popular streaming music service Spotify, starting from today.

The service which was previously only available to users in Europe, will now make its long awaited debut at some point today, according to the creators of Spotify, who state that more details will be given to US consumers at somepoint later today.

However, it may prove difficult to gain access to Spotify, as it looks like accounts will only be available via invites, and Spotify are yet to release details on how they will be distributed. This will be irrelevant to many US consumers though, as there will just be a huge feeling of relief right now, after a two-year delay as Spotify struggled to come to an agreement with record companies.

Thankfully, this deal has now been reached, and it means that users in the US will be able to stream music instantly from companies such as Universal, Warner, EMI and Sony Music. Just like the European version, three versions of Spotify will be available for US consumers – a free, ad supported version, an unlimited version and a premium version.

The unlimited version will cost $5 per month, while the premium version will consumers back $10 a month to listen to an unlimited amount of songs, complete with access to the Spotify mobile app with the ability to listen to music playlists offline, as reported from Reuters.

While US consumers are naturally delighted with the news, we couldn’t help but notice that once again, Spotify customers in the UK are getting hit with higher prices, which although isn’t a new practice, it’s often met with disbelieve by UK consumers just wishing they would get a fair deal for once.

For example, Spotify premium in the UK costs £9.99 a month for a subscription, but the same price for the US according to the exchange rate would be $16, but for some strange reason consumers will only be required to pay $9.99 for their premium account. With this insight in mind, we wouldn’t be surprised if some UK consumers feel outraged about having to pay more. The same applies to Spotify’s Unlimited account, as while UK customers need to pay £4.99 for one, US consumers only need to pay $4.99, not the $8 in accordance with the exchange rate.

As we mentioned above, this is probably only going to be a minor issue for those of you who don’t mind paying for Spotify at whatever cost. It’s still a great piece of software, and personally speaking, software which I find myself using on a daily basis since I’m a music lover.

If you are a Spotify subscriber in the UK, let us know your thoughts on the US launch with relation to the price details. We’ll be informing US consumers how they can get an invite soon.